A blog dedicated to coverage and analysis of the Cubs and Bears, along with observations on other teams and random nonsense. Warning: Coverage is incomplete, analysis poor, and predictions typically wrong.
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Thursday, December 3, 2009

Per ESPNChicago, Fox and Miles head to Oakland in exchange for righty Jeff Gray and two minor leaguers.

I'm thrilled to see Miles go (it says something about last year's offseason that two of Hendry's first moves this offseason were to happily get rid of terrible acquisitions from last year, Heilman and Miles), but disappointed to see Fox go. I realize Fox really has nowhere to play on the Cubs' roster--or any NL roster for that matter--but I enjoyed watching him hit and hoped to get a bit more for him down the road if he couldn't crack the regular lineup.

But to be fair to Hendry, 1) he may have actually maxed out on his trade value--Fox impressed with his bat in '09 and it's possible that if he would have languished on the bench next year and put up poor numbers, he would have lost all his value, and 2) analyzing trades at the time they're made, especially when it comes to young players, is a fool's game. Gray, 28, had a 3.76 ERA in 24 games last year, and according to ESPNChicago he throws hard and throws strikes. Who knows, Gray could become the Cubs' primary set-up man. I'm not suggesting that's likely, just saying that it's impossible to be sure exactly what a 28-year-old with 24 innings of experience is going to become.

In addition, 23-year-old Matt Spencer is a versatile player who may make an impact down the road.

I am happy that Fox might get a chance to prove himself with the A's. Best of luck, Jake.

3 comments:

I'm bummed about Jake. I really liked him. I agree with your assessment of the situation, though. It just sucks to lose players who have a lot of potential, even if they have other areas in which they struggle a bit.

About Me

I grew up in Wadsworth, Ill., a northeast suburb of Chicago, and have been a die hard (and we do die hard, every year) Cubs fan ever since my mom took me away from a day of preschool to bring me to Wrigley Field. I follow them--and sports in general--way more closely than can be considered healthy, and I'm sharing my obsession with you.